While police and the property owner were meeting Monday at the scene of the theft on Hiawatha Boulevard West, in Syracuse, Caltagirone drove a truck into the same building, police said.

"I asked him what he was doing here. He said he was just driving around," Francis Lombardi, owner of the former Syracuse Tank Co., said.

When the driver identified himself to the officer, Lombardi recognized the name. A Roth Steel employee gave him Caltagirone's name as the man who just sold the silo as scrap.

"When he drove in here, he saved us a lot of footwork," Lombardi said Tuesday. "That's one of the dumbest crooks around."

Caltagirone had $812 in cash and two receipts from Roth Steel when police searched him, police said.

Lombardi said he got a call Monday from a man who keeps an eye on the property. The man had just seen a truck with a silo on the back leave Lombardi's property, at 723 Hiawatha Blvd. W., and go into Roth Steel, across the street at 800 Hiawatha Blvd. W.

Before he called police, Lombardi did his own investigation.

Lombardi said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the level of cooperation at the metal salvage yard. Lombardi found his five silos, as well as the pipe-making machinery.

Roth employees gave him Caltagirone's name as the man who sold them the scrap. They also gave Lombardi the license plate of the truck that carried it in.

The nine tons was the largest recovery police have made of stolen metal sold for scrap, Sgt. Tom Connellan, speaking for city police, said.

Caltagirone told police he didn't realize anyone cared about the property, police records state. Caltagirone admitted taking the silos to Roth Steel with two other men, but told police he did not know who they were, police state.

A man who was in the truck with Caltagirone was let go by police. Caltagirone was ordered held at the county Justice Center in lieu of $2,500 bail or $5,000 bond.